Brand New Balcony
by Silberias
Summary: After they see off Prince Turniphead, Howl is left with the task of remaking his castle, but he hits upon a certain stumbling block. What should he give Sophie?


**Edit to all who read "Last Incarnation of a Soul,"**

I must come clean with you guys--I have avoided even opening it on my computer like the plague for some time now. My Avatar-withdrawal-symptoms have literally no way of being satiated by actual Avatar episodes or anything--I'm not allowed to watch it on TV, nor can I watch it online because of my parents. I haven't had Avatar in like seven months, and so the muse to whom I give my ideas to has remained silent. With no drive or direction--even when I have a map of where the story is going, every plot action and major interaction--I find I cannot write. Only very very recently has my drive for Harry Potter fanfiction returned, but that was only because I watched "Howl's Moving Castle," last week--the magic contained in that movie spurred a little Harry Potter magic. Unfortunately I have no similar recourse in terms of Avatar. I'm very, very sorry to all of you who enjoy that story--I love it to death as well, you can't imagine how much it hurts to open up a story and feel nothing coming out of your fingertips--but until I can somehow get the DVD or good spoilers for episodes (that's what I'm reduced to, yes), I won't be physically able to write more on AtLA:LIoaS

**End edit.**

Author's Notes: I recently watched Howl's Moving Castle on googleVideo (which is amazing) with the Christian Bale dub. It was pretty amazing, and it inspired my to take up my pen, imagination, keyboard, and word processor yet again after nearly an entire month of not even touching them. I must thank Dianne Wynn Jones (or whatever her name is) for _creating_ Howl's Moving Castle in the first place although I must inform you, I will never read the books, EVER, and then to thank Miyazaki Hayao for creating a frickin' amazing movie.

This fanfic, for those who stayed with me through this much of AN, takes place between the partial end where they all see Prince Turniphead off, and when they fly off into the clouds. I instantly, after hearing from my brother that Miyazaki characters _never_ get together at the end of his movies as well as reading some pretty emo and silly (silly as in I lost brain cells) fanfiction, decided to write this. Hopefully my inspiration will carry me along until summer, when I can get some quality time with some of the fandoms I've left by the wayside when times got tough.

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When Howl redesigned his castle to fly, he first made sure that everyone in his new family had their own personal spaces. The Witch of the Waste got a small garden and yard for her to sit and while away an afternoon. Markle was given a small study room which had a large window out to the little yard. He added for himself another bathroom, but, to prevent any teasing from Sophie about his selfishness, he told himself it belonged to Markle as well.

However when he got to Sophie, he was stumped for an entire afternoon. What could he give her that wouldn't bring back any unpleasant memories? A small room to do her little hobbies had been in the previous castle, but she hadn't seemed to take to it the way he'd hoped. In the end he decided to be devious and tell Markle to ask her what she wanted. It was a perfect solution.

Except Markle refused and told Howl to ask for himself.

After another day of the five of them reluctantly (except Calcifer, but Calcifer wasn't complaining since Sophie let him gorge himself on firewood whenever he settled down into the hearth) staying at a hotel, Howl steeled himself for his confrontation. It wasn't going to be easy—sometimes Sophie only wanted to give others what they wanted—she rarely would demand for anything particular or special.

They were heading down for dinner when he was finally ready.

"Sophie," he said as he sat on the floor near the fireplace. She turned with a smile on her face.

"Yes, Howl?"

"Can I speak with you a moment?" he saw in the background that the others had stopped as well. Sophie must have seen his eyes flicker.

"You guys head down to dinner, we will be down in a bit," she said with a smile as she shooed them out. Howl was relieved that he didn't have to ask them to leave, that this was a very private matter.

"I suppose you want me to go too?" Calcifer said between the cracks and pops of the fire. Howl smiled and shook his head.

"I'm going to need—"

"You can't make me do the bath—you can't do that anymore!"

Sophie and Howl laughed at the fire demon's paranoia.

"No, I need you to be here, dear friend," Howl said as he stood up. Sophie looked scared suddenly; as scared, it seemed as when he'd shown her the meadow. This was not good at all. He really needed to learn how to charm her rather than scare her. iOh well, that's not the topic at hand/i he said to himself.

"Sophie, the reason that I've not rebuilt the castle yet is because I'm considering how I want it to be. The first thing I decided, before anything else, was that everyone who is in my new family of—" he broke off before the word ifriends/i came out of his mouth. If he said that word she would get the wrong idea, he knew it.

"Yes?"

"Well, that everyone in the family would have their own space."

"Howl that's wonderful!" Sophie's face glowed with happiness, "You can give Markle and Heen a place to play, a bigger kitchen, a proper bedroom for the Witch of the Waste—"

"But Sophie," Howl broke out, "I have no idea what to give iyou/i. I've been wracking my brain for days, I can't sleep, I got up in the middle of the night last night and talked to Calcifer for two hours and came away with nothing!. Everything I think of I instantl—"

Sophie stepped close to Howl then, reached up, and put her hand over his mouth to stop him. They stared at one another for a moment as Calcifer muttered about stubborn people and how they flocked together.

"Really Howl, you don't have to put anything new in for me. I don't believe I need anything more than what the old castle had." She dropped her hand and Howl caught it with his own.

"No Sophie, you're getting something even if I have to dye my hair that hideous orange color. You aren't going to win this with being passive. I want to give something to you that will be yours. Something everyone will know is yours." Howl restrained himself from leaning down and kissing her then. It was hard to do so when her face was tilted at just the right angle upwards. It would have been very easy to give in to the beautiful way she was gazing up at him…until she brought reality smashing down upon him by speaking in her very practical tone.

"Howl, I have my own bedroom—everyone knows that its mi—" Howl cut her off by throwing himself to the floor with a shout, curling himself up into a ball to hide himself from the world.

"Well if you're going to act like a child, I will go down to dinn—" she wasn't going to let him win the battle his way just like he wasn't going to let her win her way.

"Sophie, no. Come on, look at the guy," Calcifer pleaded with her. Howl heard his Sophie let out a heavy sigh and then the sounds of her dragging a chair over to sit next to him.

"Howl what is it?"

He mumbled a reply which might have been heard if Calcifer's fire hadn't let out a particularly large pop at the same moment.

"What?"

Howl didn't move, but he made himself a little better heard this time: "I said that all I wanted was to give you something that would be yours. But you don't want me to, so I'll just stay right here."

"Oh…" was her reply. As if he sensed some sort of impending doom, Calcifer made a quick and garbled goodbye before he shot out of the room as fast as his sprite form could go. IGood, supporting friend I have there…/i

He felt that she was trying to formulate something for him, to make him get over his tantrum. Or perhaps gathering a bit of courage? He rather hoped so, it was damned uncomfortable here on the floor!

"Howl, for me to ask this you have to look at me, and…and be sitting up. Otherwise I won't ask and you can stay on the floor and rot," she said finally and Howl nearly leapt up, leaning his elbows on her knees and gazing up into her face with rapt attention. And love, there was always love for her, no matter how upset she could make him.

"Howl, my dear, dear Howl," she smiled at him as she cupped his face between her hands. He let her because it was bliss to do so. "I don't care how it's done or where it is in the castle, but what I want more than anything I can possibly think of…is just a place where…" she trailed off, stroking his cheek with her thumb. That pause made him stand up a little straighter on his knees and bring her face close to his.

"What?" he said as softly as he could.

"Hush, Howl, this is hard," was her tart reply. He waited.

"What I want is someplace where—someplace where you can kiss me." She must have expected him to laugh or some other highly unsensitive thing, for she squeaked when he pulled her down and off the chair and into his arms.

"Of course, Sophie, of course!" he said over and over again as he held his Sophie tightly.

"Howl I can barely breathe!" she laughed out after a few long moments.

"Well you can still breathe a little bit can't you?" she swatted his shoulder half-heartedly in response.

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How did you like it? Tell me!

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Review?


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